Call for labour unity
By Ray Fulcher and Rachel Evans
MANILA — A press conference of six union organisations here on April 18 announced the formation of a Caucus for Labour Unity (CLU) with the aim of unifying the Philippines labour movement.
The organisations involved are the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), the United Workers for Change (BMP), the Caucus of Independent Unions (CIU), the National Confederation of Labour in the Philippines (NCLP), the Pandayan group of trade unions and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines. Together they account for more than 400,000 workers, 60-70% of the country's organised workers.
The CLU is seen by its member organisations as an informal and open vehicle to facilitate the coming together of various labour bodies. The CLU believes that continued union disunity, in the face of more structural adjustment programs favouring capital and investment over workers' wages and conditions, could only mean further impoverishment and disfranchisement of workers.
CLU is calling on all trade union organisations to join the unity process "regardless of ideological, political and organisational differences", the bottom line being the unity of labour to achieve basic union demands. It says that "No single organisation has the monopoly over the solutions to the basic problems confronting labour".
BMP spokesperson Rene Magtubo said one of the principles of the CLU is "no union raiding".
CLU has launched a united May Day rally and is calling on other union bodies to join with it as a show of labour unity. There are currently three May Day rallies planned.
However, Crispin Beltram, a spokesperson for the KMU union organisation, claimed that "The CLU was formed to support the anti-people and anti-worker programs of Ramos".
On May 1, the component organisations of CLU are to sign a "Covenant of Unity and Accords on Mechanisms and Processes to Unify Labour". The signing will take place at the Luneta grandstand in Manila, in the presence of members and supporters.